Honor Among the Fallout
by RulersAreRoyal
Summary: Aramorel Fletcher is a runaway would-be ranger without a cause until a certain grey wizard invites her on a quest to reclaim a homeland. Suddenly, she is the first line of defense for the heirs of Durin, and she must prove her loyalty by upholding her promise of protection at all costs. Through ruin and flame, all will know that the line of Durin stands protected.
1. Prologue

Terrible things always happen when least expected.

One moment, Aramorel was outside trying to move firewood into the house. The next, she was a sobbing wreck on the floor with what was left of her family.

Aramorel's father, Bledoc Fletcher, was chieftain of the Rangers of Ithilien, and had been since the Fell Winter, only a few years before Ara had been born. He went on many missions with the rangers to keep the old road between Minas Morgul and Osgiliath clear of orcs and other foul beasts. He was one of the most skilled archers out of all the Rangers of Ithilien. He was a master swordsman, and had taken down many an orc in his time. He had even set traps out for Mûmakil and their Haradrim riders, which resulted in him taking down quite a few of the gigantic creatures and the ruthless men.

Because Bledoc had been such a skilled ranger, Ara didn't think that he could have been killed by anything or anyone. And yet... he had.

On a routine mission to harass anything across the Anduin, the rangers were attacked by a fearsome pack of orcs that had been waiting for them. In an attempt to protect one of the younger rangers, Bledoc Fletcher took a hit from a Morgul arrow in the chest, and died instantly. The rangers managed to drive the orcs away, at the cost of not only their chieftain, but many other lives as well.

The news was brought to them by Armod, Bledoc's second-in-command. Ara's mother had just started preparing dinner when he arrived at their house in the tiny village where most of the ranger's families stayed. Elion, Ara's mother, immediately called Ara and Gwaddyn into the house from outside, where the two siblings had been squabbling over firewood.

Armod tried to break the news to them carefully, but Gwaddyn and Aramorel had already guessed what had happened simply because of the look on the ranger's face. He took his leave of the family, wanting to give them some privacy as they mourned the loss of their father.

There was no burial, as the rangers hadn't had any time to return to the place where the fight occurred and recover the bodies of the dead. The families of the rangers that fell in the fight held a memorial service to honor the dead. Things were much quieter in the village in the weeks that followed, as people continued to mourn the loss of their loved ones.

One by one, any of the able-bodied men left in the village were told to take up arms and join the rangers. The rangers called Gwaddyn to take up his father's place as chieftain of the Rangers of Ithilien. After all, he had been trained by his father since he was big enough to wield a sword, and he was sixteen, which was just old enough for his mother to not make too much of a fuss about her youngest child having to join the rangers. Gwaddyn had no want to be part of the rangers. He declined their request, and said that they should ask Aramorel, who had grown more stubborn and insistent in the days after her father's death. She wished for nothing more than to join up with the rangers and help people.

It seemed ridiculous for the rangers to ask a scrawny girl who was barely nineteen to join them, and they said as much. They claimed that it would be too much of a burden to make sure that she was safe, and that she could not hold her own at all. This disgusted Ara, who made a silent vow to herself to prove them wrong. Elion, of course, was against having her daughter fighting in any capacity, but Gwaddyn was enthusiastic, and even offered to teach his sister everything their father had taught him. It took a year and a half of training before Gwaddyn ran out of ways to train her, but Ara was a natural, having inherited her mother's ability to learn any number of things quickly. Coupling that with her father's strength and perfectionism (which she had inherited), she mastered the skill of archery in due time, and became an impressive swordswoman.

Her brother decided that she would have to showcase her skill to the rangers, and he tried to get them to consider letting Ara join them. Though they were in awe of the young woman's prowess with a bow and arrow, and her capability with a sword, they still declined when she asked to join them. They still said she would be too much of a hassle to take care of, claiming that she was a woman, and that women are not meant for fighting in any capacity.

Dejected, but not without hope, Ara decided that if the rangers would not take her, she could find somewhere else where she could be a ranger. This led to her leaving the village one chilly morning, taking her father's old bow, as many arrows as she could find, a sword that she "borrowed" from Gwaddyn, and two daggers that she kept hidden inside of her boots. Along with a pack of food and some other supplies, she also took her father's old cloak, which was a dark green, as were most of the cloaks of the Rangers of Ithilien.

She followed the road towards Dunland, where the Great West Road became the Greenway, and followed it north. She managed to stay out of the way of trouble until she ran into a grey wizard in northern Enedwaith. The wizard, who said his name was Gandalf, asked where she was from, and why she was travelling alone. Aramorel had heard tales of the grey wizard, and told him that she was a ranger who was going to find somewhere where she could be of use. Gandalf decided that he would escort her to Bree, saying that she would most likely find work to do there. She argued that she wanted to have daring adventures and fight battles, not work in a pub.

The grey wizard simply laughed and told her to stay in Bree for a while, leaving her with the promise of an adventure in the future. And so Aramorel found herself doing odd jobs in the old town, sometimes doing farm work for farmers outside of the city, other times waiting on tables in The Prancing Pony. She stayed in Bree for a year, waiting for some sort of adventure to find her.

Her waiting was rewarded with the return of a certain wizard, who came bearing an invitation to join a quest.

* * *

(A/N: Hello! This is my first fanfic on here in over two years, I think, and it is my first Hobbit fic, so please bear with me. I'm super into the history and lore of Tolkien's world, and I'll try to stick with it as best I can, but otherwise, it _is _a fic, so things can be tweaked here and there, right? Anyways...

I'm trying to make this not your average OC insert fic. Sure, it will have a few elements that are almost always in a fic with an OC, but I hope to introduce some new aspects to the genre as well. Aramorel is my baby and I love her to death. Been with me a year now and I'm finally getting around to putting her story out there.

Thank you for reading, and please, things do get a whole lot better in the next chapter (hint: dwarves appear!), so go ahead and add me to your alert list and drop a review, if you would. I'd really appreciate it.)


	2. Chapter 1: The Adventure Begins

The people who frequented the Prancing Pony were... interesting.

Aramorel couldn't say she didn't like them, even if a few of them were good-for-nothing scoundrels who underestimated the punch the short brunette woman could pack. No, those perverted, lousy men didn't take away from the good people that came into the tavern. Besides, all of them, even the good-for-nothings, were paying for her wages, which in turn kept her in one of the rooms in the tavern. The tavern keeper, Lou, gave her room and board in exchange for her waiting on tables and dealing with less-than adequately sober patrons. He also paid her a small amount of money every four weeks for extra work she did around the pub, such as fixing tables and making beds. It wasn't a lot, but coupled with the occasional farm work she could get, it was enough to get by.

She had just thrown out one of the more annoying scoundrels one night when she spotted a tall figure in grey garments approaching the tavern. She squinted, not sure if she was really seeing who she thought might be coming towards her. As the figure approached, he glanced up from under the brim of his pointed hat and locked eyes with the woman.

"Gandalf the Grey!" she exclaimed, moving out of the doorframe she had been standing in so that the wizard could get into the tavern.

"Aramorel Fletcher, just the lady I was looking for," the wizard greeted, smiling. "How are things here in Bree?"

"Very Bree-y, and rather boring," Ara answered matter-of-factly, following the wizard into the tavern. "Would you like me to get you a table?"

"That would be good of you. Do you work here now?" He let her lead him through the crowded room to an empty table in the corner of the tavern.

"Only place that'd take me," the woman replied. She looked around the tavern to see if she needed to be doing anything in particular at that moment. Seeing that the other people working in the tavern had everything covered, she turned back to the wizard. "I do some work on the farms around, too, but those jobs go pretty quick."

Taking off his hat and setting it on the table, he regarded her with an eyebrow raised. "But none of this is what you had in mind when you left Ithilien, correct?"

The woman glanced around nervously, biting her lip. "Keep down, please," she whispered. "These people don't know where I'm from. And no, no it's not. You said that I would find some sort of adventure, and so far, the most I've done is punch a few men who couldn't keep their hands to themselves."

Gandalf shook his head. "You are a rather violent and impatient young woman, Aramorel," he stated, causing the woman to roll her eyes. "But you should not worry about being without adventure any longer. I've come to offer you a position in a company that is going east to reclaim a lost homeland."

Ara's eyes widened at what the wizard said. "How far east?"

"Over the Misty Mountains and past the Greenwood," the grey wizard told her. "We'd be gone for quite some time, and there will no doubt be a great deal of danger involved."

The woman was about to jump at the opportunity to do something, ANYTHING that would take her away from this tavern. A "yes, please let me come with you" was on the tip of her tongue when she realized that she knew nothing about who else would be in this company that Gandalf would have her work with.

"Who is in the company? Will you be leading us yourself? What will I be doing? I need to know these things before I give you my answer." She crossed her arms, looking down at the wizard who sat in front of her.

He laughed, shaking his head. "I cannot tell you the answer to any of your questions unless you accept the offer," he told her, "but I can say that I will be needing a ranger, not a barmaid, or a farmhand, on this quest."

Ara raised her eyebrows, silently contemplating the few details she had been given. She felt Gandalf was trustworthy enough to not have her join up with a group of unlikeable people, but she wasn't comfortable with not knowing where _exactly _they were going, or what they would even really be doing. It wouldn't be sane for her to agree right off the bat to go on this quest that was being offered to her.

"I need more time to think on it, Gandalf," she said. "It would be foolish of me to join this quest that you've been _incredibly vague _about without giving it a good amount of thought."

Gandalf nodded, seeming satisfied with her sentiment. "I have business elsewhere, but I will return for your answer in a week's time."

Nodding once, Ara's attention was caught by one of the other workers calling to her from across the tavern. "I think I have to get back to work. Do you need a room—"

She looked back to the table to see that the wizard had disappeared. She shook her head and smiled to herself as she went to see what she was needed for.

Aramorel kept herself busy with work around the tavern for the next few days, though she kept the quest in the back of her mind. She wanted to go, honestly, but all Gandalf has really said was that they would be reclaiming a lost homeland. What could that mean?

Finally, the night before the grey wizard had said he would return, Ara had made up her mind that she would join him on this quest, if only for the sake of being able to get away from the mundane life she had in Bree for a while. She was working at the bar of the tavern, wishing that closing time would hurry up so she could tell Lou that she would be leaving at some point in the near future. She had just poured another pint for one of the patrons when she overheard two men discussing something very interesting.

"Aye, there are orcs in those mountains, all right," one of them was saying. "Saw them with me own eyes. They're hunting something, that's for certain."

Ara subtly took a washcloth and began wiping down the bar, inching nearer to the men so she could eavesdrop better.

"Them mountains are crawling with critters, it's hardly something to rave about," the second man argued, tipping back his mug and downing the cup's contents.

"Not orcs! Orcs never been in these parts of the Misty Mountains," the first man exclaimed, banging his fist on the bar. "They're gettin' nearer and nearer to our farmlands, they are. Dunno what they're after, but I hope they get it and leave us be."

"Aye, I'll drink to that," the other man said. Obviously the two men didn't look for much excuse to drink anything. "Love, be a dear and top us off, quick as you can." He brandished his mug in front of Ara, causing her to wrinkle her nose and frown as she swiped it away to fill it with ale.

She stayed near the two men, hoping that the first would give away some details as to where the orcs were in the mountains. He didn't, and Ara was eventually moved back to waiting tables until the tavern closed for the night. She rushed to get through with her after hours duties (wiping tables, cleaning mugs, that sort of thing) before hastily scribbling a note to Gandalf, declaring that she would like to join the quest, but something came up in the Misty Mountains that she wanted to look into. Folding the note carefully, she hurried to find Lou.

She caught the tavern keeper just before he locked up for the evening. "Lou," she started, "I'm leaving in the morning. Something's come up and I've got to see my folks in the south."

"What? Are you sure?" Lou asked, rubbing his eyes and yawning. Ara nodded earnestly.

"I don't know when I'll be back, but it's imperative that I leave as soon as possible, and there's someone who's supposed to come see me tomorrow," she told him in a rush. "Can you give this to him?" She held out the note.

Lou studied her curiously, but took the note. "Who am I to give it to?"

"Gandalf the Grey. About this tall, wears, well, all grey, but one _could_ assume that, has a pointy hat and a long beard... You'll know him when you see him, I think," Ara replied, motioning with her hands along with her description. Lou sighed, muttering something before scratching his balding head.

"I don't know if I could keep your room for you if you were gone for more than a month," he said, "and I couldn't guarantee that you would still be able to come back to your job. But if you really need to go, then by all means, take some time off and go see your family."

Ara smiled brightly, practically hugging the older man. He never asked too many questions, and he tried to be as accommodating as he could to the people that worked in his tavern. She'd grown fond of him, and hoped that she would be able to return and visit him after everything with the orcs and Gandalf's quest, if she could still find a way to join it, was over with.

"Thank you, Lou," she called as she turned and practically ran to her room to pack her belongings into the pack she had brought to Bree when she left Ithilien. She changed out of the dress that was given to her when she started work at the bar and put on the clothes she had brought from Ithilien. Light brown pants that had always felt a bit too loose on her now felt a little too tight, and the sleeves of the dark shirt she had worn when she first arrived in the town were short on her. She sighed, lying on her bed and closing her eyes. She eventually fell into a rather restless sleep.

She woke up before the sun usually filtered in through the small window of her room, which gave her time to slip out of the inn without having to speak to anyone and explain why she had a bow and quiver strapped to her back. She practically ran through the empty streets of the town, hoping to get to the stables before anyone went to check on the horses.

An hour later, Ara was riding a beautiful chestnut mare out of the town, having left behind enough money in the horse's stall to compensate for basically stealing the horse, a saddle, and any other riding equipment the woman thought she needed to ride the mare. The horse had been docile enough to not make too much noise as it was bustled out of the stables in the early morning light, and the animal had been patient enough with Ara's first few attempts to mount her. Eventually, the woman had gotten onto the horse, and had enough sense of what to do to get the horse to move.

The barmaid-turned-ranger and her horse traveled towards the Trollshaws, where Ara thought would be a good place to scout for orcs and find out what the foul things were doing in these parts of the Misty Mountains. They must be after something incredibly important if they came this far west, Ara figured, and the forest would most likely be a place for orcs to camp.

She stuck to the outer borders of the forest, scouting for orcs or signs that the brutes had been around in hopes that she would find some sort of trail to follow. It took her a week of fruitless searching before she reached the northernmost border of the forest, and at that point she decided to head straight into the forest.

That was what led to her not only getting lost, but losing the horse, as well. She was sleeping in an area densely surrounded in brush when she awoke to the sound of her horse whinnying in distress. She didn't move right away, scared that she would draw the attention of whatever was causing the horse to make such terrified noises. Suddenly, the horse's cries of fear moved farther and farther away, as though something was moving it.

Aramorel jumped up, grabbing her bow and stealthily gliding through the forest in pursuit of the horse's fading whinnies. She eventually saw a light in front of her and managed to get a look at what had taken her horse: trolls.

She crept closer to the trolls' fire, hiding just out of the light, but close enough so she could see what they were doing. She squinted, trying to see what she was up against. They didn't seem like Hill-trolls, which dominated the Trollshaws and gave the forest its name. They looked more like Mountain-trolls, though that couldn't exactly be possible, unless something had driven them down from the summits where they were known to dwell.

The troll that had been carrying her horse set the mare down in a little wooden pen that already had a plethora of ponies in it. Ara frowned, wondering who in the world used ponies out this far east.

"Found this 'un tied up a ways back there," the troll that had taken Ara's horse told the other two, jerking his thumb back in the direction of where the horse had been tethered to a tree.

One of the other two trolls looked over at the mare, which looked terribly out of place amongst the ponies. "You sure that's a West Nag, Tom?" the troll asked.

"It doesn't matter what it is! What matters is it's got meat on it!" the third troll, who was stirring a boiling pot of rank stew that even Ara could smell. She wrinkled her nose in disgust before noticing something creeping near the ponies.

She moved a bit closer towards the camp, eyes focused on the little creature that had sneaked up to the ponies and had, thus far, avoided the trolls. _'Is that a hobbit? No, it couldn't be!'_ the ranger thought, observing the waistcoat-clad being trying to undo the ropes that held the fencing around the ponies together. He gave up after a while, but not before seeing the knife of one of the trolls. The short creature crept by the bumbling oafs, unaware that Ara was quietly rooting him on as she observed the entire scene unfold.

One moment the creature (which she had decided was in fact a hobbit, as it was too clean-shaven to be a dwarf) was about to grab the knife, and the next he was trying to talk his way out of getting eaten by the trolls. The ranger tightened her grip on her bow and swiftly knocked an arrow, intending to shoot the troll holding the hobbit in hopes that the poor thing could flee.

Before she could move, another short creature burst out of the brush and sliced the troll's legs. A dwarf suddenly stood in front of them, brandishing his sword bravely (albeit stupidly, in Ara's opinion).

"Drop him!" the dwarf yelled.

"You what?" one of the trolls asked.

"I said," the dwarf replied, spinning his sword around in his hand, "drop him!"

Chaos erupted in the troll camp as the hobbit was flung at the dwarf and an entire company of dwarves leapt from the brush, brandishing axes, swords, and all manner of weapons. The ranger took to watching the entire event unfold from the shadows, deciding that she wouldn't intervene. The dwarves seemed to have everything under control.

She noticed that the hobbit had obtained the troll's knife and was trying to free the ponies. She silently cheered him on, hoping that he could cut through the knots and ultimately free not only the West Nags, but her horse as well.

This, unfortunately, was not entirely the case, as though the hobbit freed the horses, he was captured, and the dwarves were forced to lay down their weapons in order to spare him getting his limbs ripped off.

Ara watched as some of the dwarves (and the hobbit) were tied up in bags, whilst others were roasted over a spit. She sighed, slipping away from the camp to go track down her mare. These dwarves and hobbit weren't any of her business. She shouldn't have been concerned with them in the first place.

She had turned and walked barely two steps when she felt a pair of eyes on her. She turned quickly and pointed her bow in the direction she felt the stare coming from and was met with a familiar pointy hat.

"Gandalf?" she gasped, lowering her bow slightly.

The wizard nodded to her, beckoning her into the woods as he glanced over at the trolls. The ranger moved over to him, shocked that they had run into each other in the middle of the Trollshaws.

"I see you have found my company, Aramorel," he stated, keeping his voice down. "I had hoped we would meet again in a less... hectic setting."

The ranger looked over to where the trolls were now arguing over how to cook the dwarves. "You're traveling with a group of dwarves and a hobbit? Whatever for?"

"I will explain later. Right now, that hobbit and those dwarves are in need of assistance," Gandalf said. "The trolls must be distracted until sunrise. Can you do that?"

Ara turned back to him, raising an eyebrow. "What makes you think that I'm going to help your company?"

The wizard frowned, taken aback by the ranger's sudden hostility.

Aramorel suddenly smirked and quickly started back to the troll camp. "I'll keep them occupied, don't worry," she said over her shoulder before hiding her bow behind a tree, along with her quiver and sword. A plan was forming in her head, and it was a plan that required her to be without weapons. She took a shaky breath and burst into the troll's camp, causing everyone to turn towards her.

Feigning distaste in the troll's cooking methods and taking advantage of everyone's momentary shock over her sudden entrance, she grimaced at the dwarves roasting over the fire. "Rotisserie dwarf? Honestly, have some respect for the food you're cooking with!"

* * *

(A/N: Hello again! Thank you to everyone who has looked at the story so far, and thank you to the one person who followed :D

As promised, the dwarves made an appearance, although the only one who's said anything so far is Kili. Don't worry, though, the rest of them talk in the next chapter!

Also, isn't Ara's last line the greatest? I love this girl so much you have no idea oh my goodness.

Next chapter is already typed up, but I'm gonna wait until I get the fourth one finished (I'm halfway through the third now) before I post it, so you should follow to make sure you don't miss anything!

As always, please review and favorite (and follow), because it makes the author happy and that's always a good thing! She won't torment your faves when she's happy!)


	3. Chapter 2: Bodyguard

"Rotisserie dwarf? What's she on about?" the nearest troll to Ara exclaimed, moving towards the ranger threateningly. "Explain yourself!"

Aramorel smiled sweetly and put her hands up to show that show had no weapons and was therefore not a threat. "Roasting the dwarves over a fire will do absolutely nothing for the taste! You'd need a sprinkling of sage for seasoning, and even then that might not be enough. Dwarf _is_ a delicacy, you know."

The dwarves on the spit yelled angrily at her, while a few in the bags kicked in protest to what she was saying. She simply kept her sickeningly sweet smile plastered on her face, trying to maintain an image of perfect innocence.

"Never mind the seasoning; we haven't got all night! Dawn ain't far away, so let's get a move on! I don't fancy being turned to stone," one of the trolls further back said. Ara's smile faltered slightly at this revelation, realizing exactly why Gandalf needed the trolls distracted.

"Wait! You're making a terrible mistake!" The hobbit, who was tied in a bag, started wiggling a little bit, glancing at Ara.

The ranger watched the hobbit stand up in his sack. "I meant, uh, with the seasoning," he added, looking from Ara to the trolls.

"What about the seasoning?" a troll questioned, narrowing his eyes.

The hobbit grinned slightly. "Well, have you smelt them? You're going to need something stronger than sage before you plate this lot up."

Ara laughed a bit in spite of herself as the dwarves began thrashing about in protest to the hobbit's accusation about their smell.

"What do either of you know about cooking dwarf?" the troll in the back asked.

"Shut up and let the lady and the, uh, flurgaburburrahobbit talk." The troll who seemed to be in charge of cooking moved closer to Ara and the hobbit.

"Uh, the secret to cooking dwarf, is, um..." The hobbit seemed to be running out of ideas.

"Yes, come on!" the troll urged.

"It's, uh..."

"Tell us the secret!"

The ranger had had enough. "You skin them first!" she cried triumphantly, causing an uproar from the dwarves.

The troll seemed appeased with this information. "Tom, get my fileting knife."

The troll (apparently named Tom) that had been ordered to get the knife scoffed. "What a load of rubbish! I've eaten plenty with their skins on. Scuff 'em, I say, boots and all."

The other troll, who had been silent throughout most of the exchange, suddenly grabbed one of the dwarves in the bags and dangled him over his mouth. Ara broke character and kicked the hobbit lightly, trying to prompt him into thinking of something. He sputtered, almost kicking her back before yelling at the troll.

"No-Not that one! He's-he's infected!" the hobbit cried.

"You what?" asked Tom.

"Yeah, he's got worms in his... tubes." The hobbit flinched as the dwarf who had been picked up was flung back onto the pile of dwarves beside him.

"Are they infested with parasites? Disgusting! I wouldn't bother eating a parasitic dwarf if my life depended on it!" Ara proclaimed, scrunching her face up in revulsion.

The dwarves were having none of the parasite talk.

"I don't have parasites! _You _have parasites!" one of them, Ara thought it was the same dwarf who had first tried to rescue the hobbit, yelled at her. She tapped her finger against her lips and glared at him. _'If I had known these dwarves were this slow, I wouldn't have bothered trying to save them in the first place,' _Ara thought quickly before one of the other dwarves, who had caught onto the plan, kicked those surrounding him. She rolled her eyes as the dwarves started yelling about how big their parasites were.

Tom was getting fed up with not being able to eat. "What would you have us do?" he asked, poking Ara hard in the shoulder. "Let 'em go?"

The hobbit and Ara exchanged a look before the hobbit shrugged. "Well..."

"You think I don't know what you're up to? These little ferrets are taking us for fools!" Tom proclaimed angrily.

"Ferrets?" Ara and the hobbit protested in unison.

"Fools?" one of the trolls yelled.

Suddenly, from a rock on the other side of the camp, the grey wizard's voice broke through the commotion. "May the dawn take you all!"

There was a loud cracking noise as the wizard split open a huge rock with his staff, and the first light of the morning sun suddenly lit up the camp. The trolls turned to stone almost instantaneously, and Aramorel let out a small sigh of relief.

She and Gandalf got the dwarves undone from their respective bindings, and after she had recovered her weaponry, the ranger was finally introduced to the company she had just helped save.

"Aramorel Fletcher, allow me to introduce the Company of Thorin Oakenshield," Gandalf said, gesturing to the dwarves as he began to introduce them. "Dwalin, Balin, Fili, Kili, Dori, Nori, _and _Ori, Oin and Gloin, call him Bifur and him Bofur, and him Bombur. And the leader of our company: Thorin Oakenshield himself."

The afore mentioned dwarf leader stepped forward towards Ara, arms crossed and eyes narrowed. "And who is she to us, Gandalf?"

Ara frowned and cut in before Gandalf could answer. "I'm a Ranger of Ithilien. Gandalf invited me on this journey a few weeks ago, but... business... found me here."

"What kind of business?" Thorin asked, glaring at Ara.

"None of yours." The ranger crossed her arms, staring down at the dwarf. She wasn't too much taller than him, in all honesty, but she used the few inches she had over him to her advantage. She also wouldn't mind telling him that she had been hunting orcs, but his accusing demeanor was making her angry. They were locked in standoff for a few moments before Gandalf pulled them both aside.

"There are more urgent things to discuss than why Aramorel happened to be here at the same time we were," Gandalf told them, forcing the two to break their almost instantaneous coldness towards each other. "Such as why I asked her to join us in the first place."

"Why did you ask her?" Thorin questioned. "She does not seem to be a typical ranger."

Ara kept her arms crossed as she balled her fists. Gandalf sighed in annoyance as he saw that the dwarf and the ranger did not want to get along. "I asked her to come so that she may serve as a first line of defense for the heirs of Durin."

Both the ranger and the dwarf gave the wizard the same incredulous look.

"You want me to babysit some dwarves?!" Ara asked, furrowing her brow as she stared at the wizard. Thorin whipped his head around to scowl at the ranger.

"The heirs of Durin are not just 'some dwarves', Aramorel," Gandalf explained, looking quickly at the dwarf who was staring angrily at the woman. "They are the heirs to the throne of Erebor. They are royalty."

The ranger's frown deepened as she looked away from Gandalf to see Thorin glowering at her. "I'm going to guess that he's one of them," she said, nodding her head towards Thorin. "But you said 'heirs', which implies that there's more than just him."

Gandalf nodded and looked over at the company of dwarves who were mulling about behind them. "Fili! Kili!" he called. Two of the younger-looking dwarves jerked their heads towards the wizard and walked over to the group.

"Yes, Gandalf?" the blond-haired one of the two asked, looking over at Aramorel questioningly. The darker-haired one simply raised an eyebrow at the ranger and smirked.

The wizard turned back to Ara. "These are Fili and Kili, Thorin's nephews. They are the other heirs of Durin in our company." He regarded the two dwarves in question for a moment before speaking. "Aramorel will be your bodyguard of sorts, should she so choose to join our company."

Kili scoffed. "Bodyguard? Why? We can hold our own!" Fili nodded in agreement with his brother, appraising the woman carefully as he narrowed his eyes. She felt uncomfortable under his scrutiny.

"Though I don't doubt your skills, it would do you well to have some protection on this journey. There are some who would wish to destroy the line of Durin." Gandalf looked out at them from under the brim of his hat.

The brothers were silent, exchanging a look before turning their attention to Thorin. "Is she really going to join us?" Fili asked.

Thorin looked from his nephews to the ranger in silent contemplation. Finally, he sighed, coming to a conclusion. "Should she wish to, she can." With that, he walked away, muttering to himself all the while. Gandalf followed after him, as he still had things to talk about with the dwarf.

Aramorel almost followed the wizard, but was suddenly distracted by the dwarf brothers.

"Are you going to come with us to take back Erebor?" Fili, who had suddenly appeared on her right, asked. She looked from him to his brother in surprise.

"I... Is that what you're going to do? I-I did not know you were going to Erebor," she stammered. "Erebor" was a name she had heard somewhere, though she could not place exactly where she knew it from, nor could she remember why it was significant.

Kili, on her right, grinned. "Yes, we're going to take back our rightful home from the dragon that dwells there now. It is our birthright!"

Ara stepped away from the brothers. "Dragon? You're going to fight _a dragon_?"

Fili and Kili looked at each other before turning back to her. "Of course!"

Slack-jawed, the ranger stared at the two dwarves before making up her mind.

"You won't last a second against a dragon alone," she declared, causing the brothers to scowl at her, "and there is absolutely no way I am going to miss out on killing a dragon."

Kili raised his eyebrows in surprise. "So you'll go with us?"

The ranger nodded. "Of course!"

The brothers grinned suddenly, and they each grabbed one of her arms and practically dragged her to the rest of the company, where she was given a contract to sign, swearing that she would protect Fili, Kili, and Thorin against anything that could do them harm.

Moments later, Thorin and Gandalf had everyone searching for a troll cave, which they found in a matter of minutes. The dwarves took to rooting through the treasure, and Ara decided to stay out of their hair while they buried the new-found riches. She found herself alone with the hobbit, whom she had found out was named Bilbo Baggins and was the company's burglar of sorts.

"You were good back there with the trolls," Ara said to him, gaining a quick smile from the halfling. "I was worried you were going to get eaten! I would've stepped in sooner if Kili hadn't jumped out and challenged them."

The hobbit shook his head slightly, chuckling. "I think you stepped in at just the right time, if you ask me."

Ara smirked, and the two stood in silence as they waited for the rest of the company to finish rooting through the troll hoard. A question presented itself in Ara's mind all of a sudden, and she looked down at the hobbit next to her.

"Why would a hobbit of the Shire come on an adventure like this?" she asked quite suddenly, realizing that she might sound a bit rude.

Bilbo, thankfully, didn't take the question the wrong way. "I suppose the Took in me won out against the Baggins," he answered, which left Aramorel more confused than before. However, before she could ask what he meant, Gandalf left the cave and handed Bilbo a dagger. Ara took that as a sign to leave them alone, though she did not get too far before Thorin yelled out that something was coming.

Taking out her sword, Ara followed the company as Gandalf rushed them away from the cave. They were stopped by a deranged man shouting "Fire! Thieves! Murder!" as he burst from the brush, being pulled on a sled by rabbits.

Gandalf knew the man, thankfully, and went to talk with him while the company wandered around for a bit. Ara sat down on a rock and inspected her sword idly, wiping the blade on her coat in a half-hearted attempt to make it shine. In an instant Fili and Kili appeared on either side of her again, sitting on the rock as well.

"So, Ara," Kili said, "can I call you that?"

"I suppose," the ranger answered, frowning slightly. She sheathed her sword and looked from one brother to the other. "What did you want?"

"We wanted to know more about you, since you are going to be our official bodyguard," Kili answered, grinning cheekily. "You know, how old you are, where you're from, whether you're any good as a ranger... things like that."

The woman shot him a glare at the implication of the last part, but crossed her arms and sighed. "I'm twenty-two, I used to live near the westernmost banks of the Anduin, and if I wasn't any good at being a ranger, I doubt Gandalf would have asked me to be your bodyguard."

Fili laughed and slapped her on the back, causing her to almost fall forwards off of the rock. "He's only messing with you! I'm sure you're a good ranger. Probably taken down plenty of orcs and foul beasts in your time, right?"

The ranger sputtered a bit, trying to find a way to answer the question without making herself seem like a complete failure. "Well, I, uhm, wouldn't say plenty, to be honest..."

Before the brothers could say anything, a chilling howl was heard by the whole company. Ara jumped off of the rock, followed by the two brothers, and knocked an arrow, looking around the forest that surrounded them for any movement.

"Was that a wolf? Are there wolves out there?" Bilbo asked, stuttering a bit as the color drained from his face.

"Wolves? No, that is not a wolf," a dwarf in a funny hat (Ara thought he was Bofur) answered, gripping his pickaxe tightly.

The ranger suddenly spotted a huge beast on the hill above Bilbo, the hat-wearing dwarf, and a red-headed dwarf. "Look out!" she shouted, pulling back her bowstring and letting the arrow fly over Bilbo's head as the creature launched itself towards the company. She hit the creature in the chest, but Thorin stabbed it with his sword for good measure before realizing another one of the huge beasts had come up behind him. Kili shot at it, and one of the tougher-looking dwarves hit it with his axe. Ara rushed over to the beast she had hit and pulled her arrow out of it, recovering the now bloodied shaft to her quiver.

"Warg scouts," Thorin seethed, pulling his sword out of the creature, "which means an orc pack is not far behind."

"Orc pack?!" Bilbo exclaimed, shocked. Gandalf moved towards Thorin angrily.

"Who did you tell about your quest beyond your kin?" he questioned.

"No one." Thorin stared up at the wizard.

"Who did you tell?!"

"No one, I swear!"

Gandalf shook his head slightly, looking around for any more surprise warg attacks.

"What in Durin's name is going on?" Thorin demanded. Gandalf looked back at him.

"You are being hunted," the wizard stated. Ara gripped her bow tightly, feeling her heart skip a beat in panic.

"We have to get out of here!" the axe-wielding dwarf said.

"We can't, we have no ponies!" one of the younger dwarves, Ori, told them. "They bolted."

Aramorel had to remember to breathe evenly when she realized exactly how much danger they were in.

Suddenly, the strange man with the rabbit sled spoke up. "I'll draw them off."

"These are Gundabad wargs!" Gandalf argued, turning quickly towards his friend. "They will outrun you."

"These are Rhosgobel rabbits!" the man exclaimed. "I'd like to see them try."

With that, the man took off on his rabbit sleigh, leading the orcs away from the company. Gandalf led them across the grasslands, telling them to stay together as they almost ran into the orc pack. Thorin passed Ara as they ran, muttering to her that she should stay near Fili and Kili. She obliged, hurrying to catch up with the brothers and keep them out of harm's way.

They hid behind a rock as they were almost seen by the orcs again, and Ara heard an orc on a warg step onto the rock they were hidden behind. Thorin looked at Kili and the two shared a silent thought before Kili knocked an arrow, stepped away from the rock, turned, and fired at the orc. He hit the warg, and just as the orc was about to give them away by blowing a horn, Ara moved to fire an arrow at it.

That did not stop the brute and its mount from making horribly loud squealing noises as they died. Ara grabbed the arrows from the orc and warg and tossed Kili's back to him. They suddenly heard the other wargs' howls getting closer.

"Now we've done it," Ara muttered in exasperation, just as Gandalf yelled at them to run.

The wargs were gaining on them as they ran. The company rushed down a small hill and into an almost bowl-shaped part of the plains, where they realized they were surrounded.

"There's more coming!" the ranger yelled to Thorin, who was looking around for some sort of escape.

"Kili! Shoot them!" the dwarf leader ordered.

"We're surrounded!" Fili shouted, taking out his sword as his brother started firing arrows at the orcs. Ara followed suit, making every shot with her bow count.

Gandalf seemed to have disappeared, and the dwarves shouted such, until the wizard appeared from behind some rocks and called to them.

"This way, you fools!" he yelled, and the dwarves hurried to the rocks, where Gandalf had found a small cave.

"Kili! Go!" Ara shouted at the dwarven archer, who had not moved to escape. He looked at her and bolted for the rocks, as Ara sent one last arrow firing towards an orc. She turned and rushed to the rocks, jumping and sliding into the cave right after Kili. Thorin followed suit, and they all waited in the cave to see if the orcs would follow.

A strange horn sounded outside, which caused Thorin to look up towards the opening of the cave in confusion. There were sounds of arrows hitting the orcs and wargs, and suddenly a dead orc rolled into the cave the company had hidden in. Thorin moved forward and pulled an arrow out of the dead orc, inspecting the tip in disgust.

"Elves," he said, throwing the arrow down in disdain. He and Gandalf exchanged a look, and Dwalin shouted that he could not tell where the pathway at the end of the cave led.

"Follow it!" Bofur exclaimed, rushing forward onto the narrow path. The company squeezed through the narrow passageway, and when the path opened up again, they were met with a surprising sight.

Aramorel stepped out of the pathway and gasped. A beautiful city lay in the valley before them, a city that she had only heard few tales of long ago.

"The valley of Imladris," Gandalf said, moving forward. "In the common tongue, it is known by another name."

"Rivendell," Bilbo murmured, breathless at the beauty of the city.

Thorin seethed in annoyance. "This was your plan all along, to seek refuge with our enemy," Thorin accused Gandalf, moving towards the wizard aggressively.

"You have no enemies here, Thorin Oakenshield," Gandalf proclaimed. "The only ill-will to be found in this valley is that which you bring yourself!"

Ara hid a small laugh as she overheard the conversation, continuing to gaze out over the Last Homely House of the East. The wizard soon moved to the front of the company and led them down into the city.

* * *

(A/N: Wooo! Hellooooo! Thank you to everyone who has favorited and followed this story so far. If you could leave a review, that would be fantastic.

Also. Rotisserie dwarf is possibly THE BEST phrase ever.)


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